The largest Art Fair in Africa has a dual interest for me: as an art enthusiast, and as a potential art seller. The first time I visited the Fair in 2023 as a simple enthusiast. This year I also went as an accredited reporter for the Camera Press Magazine, only on the last day. Photographing an event is always a challenge, because the points of view can be different: an ironic and tender look, a passionate vision, a greater interest in visitors than in exhibitors. I was above all interested in showing the vitality of the event, therefore the union between the visitors and the workers. The photos in the report were acquired in various ways, including with multiple exposures and long times, where visitors appear as shadows and do not partially cover the works of art as in other photos. I won’t dwell on the peculiarities of this 2024 Edition, which has the original layout by theme, created by the brilliant Italian Director Laura Vincenti.
I had the pleasure of seeing exhibitors already encountered in 2023, such as the MOVART Gallery in Luanda Lisbon and other very interesting new exhibitors.
Among the artists, at least four very well-known names from South Africa were missing (two photographers and two painters), which I will not mention, but there were other names less known to me, which made me very happy: I go to Art Fairs above all for the new things.
Most of the works were paintings, which reflects the global trend of the art market. What if I would have purchased some works? If I could, I would have bought at least thirty of them, including paintings, photos, and sculptures. Unlike Paris Photo (which is only for photographs), after the end of the Fair the results of sales are not made public here, and furthermore, not all exhibitors have a price transparency policy. Among those transparent in prices, I mention Everard Read, the oldest Gallery in South Africa, with offices in CT J, F. I had the pleasure of being able to interview the owner of the Gallery and the Director, a very competent young woman, who explained their very successful and prolific sculptor Angus Tylor and told me about the new large art exhibition space in the Cape area, the Norval Foundation, which I will be visiting soon.
Two other multi-location galleries that I know well are equally transparent in their prices, Ebony/Curated and SMAC, which present splendid works in very large spaces.
The LIS10 Gallery, with offices in Arezzo and Paris has the exclusive rights to the young Ivorian artist Laetitia KY, much followed in South Africa: an artist and political activist, who, unlike the other photographer Muholi, uses her hairstyle in her photographic self-portraits not only artistically, but also for very explicit political messages against “white privilege.” There has been much debate about the contamination between art and politics, and I don’t want to delve into this minefield, but it seems correct to me to say that if a work is of great quality, it can also have political content: I’m thinking of Dante Alighieri, Bansky, and others.
I will not make a complete report, which can be found on the Internet. I am only publishing some “visual notes”, with the plan to return to visit the Fair in 2025, not only on the last day but on all exhibition days. Personally, I was happy to see the good and friendly Italian gallery owners who have been stable in Cairo for decades with their gallery Mashrabia Gallery of Contemporary Art and the friendly young Portuguese director of the Lisboa branch of the MOVART Gallery, which presents artists that I really like, among which I mention the Angolan-Dutch photographer Lola Keyezua (link: https://www.psp-culture.com/photography/lola-keyezua-a-romantic-realist/). Overall, I can only recommend everyone to plan even a short trip to Cape Town next year to enjoy the splendid Art Fair.
